Michael Jordan Knew He Had The Sonics When Gary Payton Asked For His Shoes After Game 1

When the Chicago Bulls entered the 1996 NBA Finals against the Seattle SuperSonics they were massive favorites to win their fourth ring in six years. After completing the best regular season in history, going 72-10, there were few that gave Seattle much of a chance, and the first three games seemed to prove those Sonics doubters right as the Bulls ripped their way to a 3-0 series lead.

Seattle would eventually claw their way back into a 3-2 series before getting closed out in Chicago on Father’s Day by an incredibly emotional Michael Jordan. One of the ways the Sonics worked their ways back into the series was by putting Gary Payton on Michael Jordan, unleashing the Defensive Player of the Year on Jordan and making life more difficult on him.

While Jordan laughed, quite heartily in fact, at Payton’s assertion his defense “took a toll” on Jordan, [extreme condescending MJ voice] The Glove did have some success on the defensive end against him and the numbers back it up. One of the reasons Jordan might remember not having trouble with Payton is that he felt he had a mental edge on the feisty guard thanks to a moment after Game 1 of that series, as Ahmad Rashad relayed in a tweet after Sunday’s episodes.

Now, with any story about Michael Jordan finding an edge, I would like to have a second source confirm this happened — else we find out this was a LaBradford Smith deal — but if it did indeed happen this way, I can certainly see Jordan seeing this as a moment he knew the Sonics were no match for that year’s Bulls. If Payton, their strongest willed player, was wanting Jordan’s shoes then that’s absolutely the kind of thing that would make Michael believe they as a team were too mentally weak — although you will never find me, personally, speaking ill of The Glove or his will to win.